Google Apps Overview

Build a 21st century school with free, familiar, easy Google Apps for Education

Saving money, helping people work together, and reducing complexity are just a few of the reasons that schools are moving to Google Apps.

Google Apps for Education increases IT efficiency so that you can direct budget and resources to your real priorities: helping students to learn and teachers to teach. With Google Apps, your school can provide shared email, calendaring, online documents, website creation and more to all of your users – at no cost.

Total solution Google Apps addresses all of your school’s communication and collaboration needs – everything from email (with built-in voice and video chat), calendaring, document creation and sharing, web publishing, and private video hosting is built in to Google Apps. Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Docs, Google Sites, and Google Video are all included. Use them all, or select which capabilities to make available at your school.

Intuitive and innovative technology Easy, familiar Gmail – along with the other applications to Google Apps – gets users working together fast, without training or support. Google’s easy, automated updates ensure that your users always have the latest version, without extra cost or complexity.

Free – and no ads Google Apps for Education is free for nonprofit educational institutions anywhere in world. It’s also free of ads, so that faculty, staff, and students never see ads in any application – ever.

“Anytime, anywhere” access Let users securely upload, access, share, and work with document files from any computer, creating a collaborative online workplace that stores and organizes information and keeps versions current for all users – without flash drives or external media.

Simple, integrated web publishing Easily develop and customize rich websites and effortlessly embed Google Docs, Google Calendars, videos, and other media – with no HTML required. Google Sites makes it easy to collect, share, and publish all types of content in a single place.

Security, privacy, and stability Improve data security by minimizing the data risks of on-premise hardware. Google’s global network of secure data centers is engineered for security, reliability, and redundancy, and are supported round-the-clock by on-site security experts. Google guarantees 99.9% uptime for Gmail, Google Docs, and Google Sites.

Technical support Get phone and email customer support when you need it, and access robust help centers, training videos, and discussion forums to share ideas and best practices with other schools.

Keep teams and groups up-to-date Share documents, calendars, sites, and media with specific groups – or create mailing lists and discussion forums without IT help. Administrators can set group policies and settings, while students and faculty within the domain can create and manage their own groups for teams, classes, and projects. Group discussions are archived and searchable, so users can find archived information with a few simple keystrokes.

Learn more about Google Apps for Education at www.google.com/apps/schools

Additional security and compliance Fine-tune the compliance and archiving you need. Google Message Discovery lets your school capture, store, and search messages for up to 10 years, enhancing the email security that’s built in to Google Apps – without adding hardware or software. Make your existing email and web infrastructure more secure, productive, and compliant regulatory and policy requirements, no matter where your users work. To help provide additional email security, Google Message Security is now included free for K-12 schools and districts who sign up to use Google Apps for Education between now and December 31, 2010, making it easy for educators to manage email use, student and faculty email policy, and domain protection.

Strong writing skills are a cornerstone of communication and a critical part of the work teachers do. Google Apps supports the writing process with easy cooperative editing that’s available where and when students work, through any browser.

Google Apps supports effective writing with built-in tools for creating, collaborating, revising, and publishing. Google Docs, included with Google Apps, supports online interaction, promoting the transition from paper-based development, input and feedback to true collaboration – all while capturing a steady stream of comments, edits, and revisions.

Google Apps lets students move beyond paper drafts, one-by-one peer reviews, and waiting for teachers to complete physical edits. Online comments and realtime editing let students see comments as they come in, acting on them and streamlining the input process. As document collaborators, teachers can provide feedback whenever it’s important in the revision cycle – not just at designated due dates. Better input and ongoing feedback on changes empowers students to continue developing their work without waiting for paper-based reviews.

Comprehensive revision history helps students and teachers understand how documents evolve from draft to polished papers – and to see how peer reviews and comments influenced the final product. “Before Google Docs, I wasn’t able to give the feedback like I can today,” says Erik Wittmer, South Western School District. “Now, I can access papers from wherever I am. Feedback is crucial during the entire writing process and Google Docs has allowed me to communicate more with my students.”

“I had a specific day when students would bring in their drafts. Now a lot more revising takes place because real conversations happen within the doc, which has in general led to better writing.”

Chris Sloan Google Certified Teacher Judge Memorial Catholic High School

Comments and responses can be added in real time, contained in the side bar of shared documents

Download this handout, full case studies, topic reviews, FAQs, and more at www.google.com/apps/ schools

Getting and organizing the right information is a key first step in launching projects or summarizing results. Easy, automated forms – built right in to Google Docs – speeds the collection of data and organizes it onto online spreadsheets for easy access and use.

Google Docs – part of Google Apps for Education – includes a simple, seamless way to collect and organize information through easily created “forms” – online questionnaires that capture information of nearly any type.

Forms make it easy to gather input on work in progress, ask for opinions, conduct research or surveys, collect contact information, or even run school elections. Information captured on forms instantly populates a Google Docs spreadsheet, ensuring that data is organized and available for full analysis. “It’s duplicate work to collect pieces of paper and reorganize them in the proper order.

Google’s forms do that work in one quick step, and let you sort it online however you wish,” explains Robin Martin, Google Certified Teacher from Unionville Chadds-Ford School District, “It is a time saver – and much neater than a pile of index cards on a desk!”

Forms support a variety of question types – multiple choice, fill-in, and more – and make them available via email, webpage, or embedded in a website. Teachers even use forms to collect project updates, capture notes on assigned reading, or conduct tests. Molly Robbins of Cherokee Trail High School reports real benefits for her students. “My students used Google Docs’ forms to complete surveys for their documentaries. It made the reporting of their data effortless. That helped them focus on the information revealed in their data – not just on how they could gather it.”

“Providing authentic assessment in project based classrooms is challenging. Forms have allowed for the self and peer evaluation process to be much smoother, faster to tabulate, and has provided much more authentic feedback to all students involved in the learning projects.”

Katie Morrow Google Certified Teacher O’Neill Public School

Easy-to-create forms collect and organize structured information

“Google Apps has worked out better than I could have ever imagined. We expected a more reliable, stable, and virus-free email. But we got more – a suite of integrated collaborative applications that are being used by teachers and in our classrooms.”

Scot Graden Superintendent, Saline Area Schools

“Google Apps lets us regain time that was lost on managing outdated systems. The changes we’ve made by switching to Apps have enabled us to stand out as leaders in both instruction and educational technology.”

Henry Thiele Chief Technology Officer, Maine Township High School District

Saline Area Schools bridged grades and buildings across their district – without being limited by school-specific hardware, software, or operating systems. They also brought secure website and video sharing to their classrooms – while saving $400K. What they wanted to do • Cut costs and replace an outdated, high maintenance email system • Eliminate the hassle of clearing out email inboxes • Find a solution that could work on any browser with any operating system What they did • Migrated 700 faculty and staff email accounts in two months • Improved collaboration district-wide using Google Sites and Google Docs What they accomplished • Saved $400K from non-renewal of the prior system and reduced email maintenance, hardware upgrades, and ongoing IT support • Nearly eliminated email related help desk tickets • Gained better productivity and reliability with a single free solution than with the various paid applications they’d previously deployed

Maine Township High School District migrated 7,000 users to Google Apps, reclaiming $35,000 and freeing their IT team from repetitive, low-value maintenence tasks. They’ve won back time, increased computer skills and engaged students and teachers in new, collaborative programs.

What they wanted to do • Update current email and calendaring systems for students • Get ahead in the arena of instructional technology What they did • Used the full range of Google Apps for Education productivity tools to transform learning, student cooperation, and teacher innovation • Brought collaboration into the classroom and extended it beyond the school halls What they accomplished • Reallocated $35,000 away from student email and toward more essential school needs • Won back valuable time that was being wasted on outdated systems • Invigorated teachers and students with new, collaborative ways to make the classroom come alive

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Google Apps really free?

Google Apps for Education is free – available at no charge for nonprofit educational institutions anywhere in world. There’s no “catch.” Google Apps for Education is free of ads, so that faculty, staff, and students never see ads in any application – ever.

What’s included with Google Apps?

Google Apps includes Gmail and a full range of applications for getting work done, in the classroom and among faculty and staff. Calendar, document (word processing, spreadsheet, and more), forms for surveys or other input, website creation and publishing, video sharing, and group communication are all integrated into Google Apps. Video, voice, and IM chat are also built right in.

You can use all of these services or just what you want – it’s up to you.

What if I only want certain users to have access to Gmail, or to other services within Google Apps?

You select which services in the Google Apps suite to make available to your domain – or even for specific groups of users.

What are the technical requirements?

You can use Google Apps with any computer or mobile device that’s capable of internet access. You don’t need any extra servers, IT staff, or hardware. When you’re not online, use an easy extension to work with your documents. You can import/export your documents into common formats, including Microsoft Office, or add solutions that sync and back up your documents on your computer.

What about reliability?

Google guarantees 99.9% uptime – which exceeds the uptime generally associated with on-premise solutions.

Who owns my data?

Data created and stored within Google Apps is available until you remove it for as long as you maintain an active account. If you wish to move data in or out of Google Apps, our tools help you easily import, export, or download information.

After you delete an account, we remove the data associated with that account.

Can I customize email policies, and create specific policies for students?

Yes. Policies include controls for the source, destination, or content of messages.

You can set up different email policies for faculty and students using Google Message Security – powered by Postini – currently offered free for K-12 schools or districts. Usage policy for the other services included in Google Apps remain consistent across users in your school.

Can I archive email with Google Apps?

Yes, with Google Message Discovery, an add-on email archiving product, available to educational institutions at a 66% discount from regular price.

How does use of Google Apps affect compliance with the Child Online Privacy and Protection Act (COPPA)?

Your school assumes the responsibility for complying with COPPA and the information that students submit. Per the Google Apps for Education Agreement, any school administering Google Apps for Education acknowledges and agrees that it is solely responsible for compliance with COPPA, including, but not limited to, obtaining parental consent concerning collection of students’ personal information used in connection with the provisioning and use of the Services by the Customer and End Users. © 2010 Google Inc. All rights reserved. Google and the Google logo are trademarks of Google Inc. All other company and product names may be trademarks of the respective companies with which they are associated.

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